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Persuasive Games: The Holly and the Ivy

[Ian Bogost's latest 'Persuasive Games' column takes a seasonal twist, as he examines the history of holiday-related themes in games - from Christmas NiGHTS through Sims 2 expansions - and suggests that the industry should produce more Christmas games.]

It's the time of year to find Christmas
all around you, no matter where you go. Lights on neighborhood shrubbery.
Red bows on downtown streetlamps. Christmas music on the FM dial. Pine-scented
candles on the mantle. Gingerbread lattes at Starbucks. Red and green-wrapped
versions of the consumer goods you buy the rest of the year in brown
and puce. In my house, holiday-striped boxes of peppermint-flavored
candy cane cookies are all the rage. Some are savory, some are gimmicky,
but there's no denying that these products put people in the holiday
spirit.

In addition to all the holiday-themed
packaged goods and decorations, all the various media industries take
advantage of the holidays. Film studios produce well-timed, if sometimes
shoddy, holiday dramas and romantic comedies. Music labels release holiday
albums and singles. Book publishers ship holiday cookbooks and novels.
Television broadcasters release another year of kids' holiday specials.

Are there holiday-themed videogames?
A few, but it's not a popular trend. Let's take a look at some of the
ways videogames embrace the holiday spirit.

Winter Levels

A common convention of action-adventure
games is the winter level (or the snow level, or the ice level).
Super Mario Bros. 2 and its kindred
often feature such levels, where the characters slip and slide around,
making ordinary platforming tasks like avoiding pits much more difficult.
Snow falls, bells jingle, and a general sense of wintriness abounds.

Super Mario Bros. 2 was one of many games that had players slipping about on ice.

Not all such levels treat the holidays
directly, but some do. One is Freezeezy Peak from Rare's 1998 Nintendo
64 title Banjo Kazooie. In addition to the usual snow and ice,
the level featured wrapped gifts and holiday music. Among the many tasks
to complete in this level, the player can help reunite a lost polar
bear family for the holidays.

Of course, the winter level is only
one of many themed levels in games like this. In Banjo Kazooie,
it's necessary to get through the pirate, underwater, and swamp levels
before reaching Freezeezy Peak. And nobody advertises a new adventure
game for the holidays by highlighting its wintery level, although one
can imagine that such a highlight might move the needle at Christmastime.

Nevertheless, owners of games like this might choose to pull them out
again in December. Of course, a game like Animal Crossing
with its real-time clock actually allows the player to celebrate Christmas
in the game world after tearing open presents and engorging on game
bird in the real world.

Winter Sports

Just as winter levels can add to
the holidays, winter sports games can do the same.
When the Winter Olympics come around every four years, they don't do
so until February, so new ice skating and bobsledding games are rarely
found at Christmastime. But a match in the latest edition of NHL,
or a run down the slopes in SSX can help set the holiday mood
just as much as making plumbers slide around on icy summits.

One can
set up a snowy game in Madden anytime -- but the sports game
most conducive to the holiday season might be the NCAA Football
series, thanks to its many bowl games. As the wrappings of gifts and
the drippings of turkey fade, anticipating or replaying a favorite college
matchup can certainly feel timely.